Western society has evolved much since 1836 in terms of gender roles. Women are no longer completely subordinate to men, and males no longer dominate society outright; however, society cannot seem to shake off old roots. Men, and women especially, still default to shallow patriarchal roles. Women frequently change their appearance in pursuit of love from a man. While the motivation for change is no longer social or government law, such as it was in the 19th century, the change occurs nonetheless. Societal pressure now accounts for the motivation for most young women who change. The media influences are innumerable and omnipresent. Cosmetic companies advertise that beauty means flawless appearance and use photoshop-ed models to display what beautiful looks like.
How can a young girl achieve beauty? She can either choose to use cosmetic products and look beautifully flawless, or choose not to use them and be a flawed human. This is the message that cosmetic companies send. Furthermore, magazines and celebrities add to the stress for beautiful figure. Magazines highlight the 'sexiest' guys on their covers and display the most flawless girls who date these guys- girls who have undergone numerous plastic surgeries and likely spent millions on cosmetics to change their appearance and achieve so-called "flawlessness". The world of celebrities teaches young women that one must have a beautiful appearance in order to date the most beautiful men.
Modern young women now have the freedom to choose who they want to be, but the media influences young women to choose the exact same option that the Little Mermaid and 19th century patriarchy says they should choose: look beautiful for men. Our research found proof of this choice in the size of the plastic surgery industry. In 2014, 12 billion dollars were spent on over 15 million cosmetic procedures, and the numbers grow every single year. Eighty-seven percent of these procedures were performed on female patients. Furthermore, we conducted a survey on high school students about the importance of various qualities in a relationship and found that over 70% of both boys and girls surveyed find appearance to be important. Even though women now have freedom of choice, our media still influences women to abide by old patriarchal roles.
On a more positive note, our survey returned many results pointing to far less shallow individuals than those highlighted in our media. Over ninety percent of the high school students surveyed agree that one's humor, work ethic, and confidence are of importance in a relationship. Furthermore, every person surveyed united in agreement that intelligence, kindness, empathy, trustworthiness, and temperament are fundamental relationship qualities. These figures in favor of one's character traits outweigh the value placed on appearance. People may still value physical beauty, but really, who can blame us? Our DNA is coded at the core to seek out potential mates with our most dominant sense: sight. It takes an individual of great integrity to completely override this instinct, and our survey results indicate that most high school students possess some level of integrity. The majority of those surveyed place greater value on one's character than one's appearance. Full Survey Results
Western society has evolved much since 1836 in terms of gender roles. Women are no longer completely subordinate to men, and males no longer dominate society outright; however, society cannot seem to shake off old roots. Men, and women especially, still default to shallow patriarchal roles. Women frequently change their appearance in pursuit of love from a man. While the motivation for change is no longer social or government law, such as it was in the 19th century, the change occurs nonetheless. Societal pressure now accounts for the motivation for most young women who change. The media influences are innumerable and omnipresent. Cosmetic companies advertise that beauty means flawless appearance and use photoshop-ed models to display what beautiful looks like.
How can a young girl achieve beauty? She can either choose to use cosmetic products and look beautifully flawless, or choose not to use them and be a flawed human. This is the message that cosmetic companies send. Furthermore, magazines and celebrities add to the stress for beautiful figure. Magazines highlight the 'sexiest' guys on their covers and display the most flawless girls who date these guys- girls who have undergone numerous plastic surgeries and likely spent millions on cosmetics to change their appearance and achieve so-called "flawlessness". The world of celebrities teaches young women that one must have a beautiful appearance in order to date the most beautiful men.
Modern young women now have the freedom to choose who they want to be, but the media influences young women to choose the exact same option that the Little Mermaid and 19th century patriarchy says they should choose: look beautiful for men. Our research found proof of this choice in the size of the plastic surgery industry. In 2014, 12 billion dollars were spent on over 15 million cosmetic procedures, and the numbers grow every single year. Eighty-seven percent of these procedures were performed on female patients. Furthermore, we conducted a survey on high school students about the importance of various qualities in a relationship and found that over 70% of both boys and girls surveyed find appearance to be important. Even though women now have freedom of choice, our media still influences women to abide by old patriarchal roles.
On a more positive note, our survey returned many results pointing to far less shallow individuals than those highlighted in our media. Over ninety percent of the high school students surveyed agree that one's humor, work ethic, and confidence are of importance in a relationship. Furthermore, every person surveyed united in agreement that intelligence, kindness, empathy, trustworthiness, and temperament are fundamental relationship qualities. These figures in favor of one's character traits outweigh the value placed on appearance. People may still value physical beauty, but really, who can blame us? Our DNA is coded at the core to seek out potential mates with our most dominant sense: sight. It takes an individual of great integrity to completely override this instinct, and our survey results indicate that most high school students possess some level of integrity. The majority of those surveyed place greater value on one's character than one's appearance.
Full Survey Results
Summary of Survey Results